Studying Advertising Through Reality Shows
Monday October 20, 2008
If you've ever watched reality shows like Tabatha's Salon Takeover and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, you've noticed how the hosts make the employees and business owners hit the streets to advertise in some episodes. They hand out flyers, free samples, coupons and try other methods to get people on the street to come to the business.
One of the best advertising studies was this past season of BBC's Last Restaurant Standing. Nine couples faced challenges to bring in more customers each week through various marketing methods in addition to running their restaurants. It was up to each team to drum up new business and increase their customer base each week.
Many of them took to the streets with flyers. One team used a scavenger hunt to attract customers with the promise of the winner receiving a free meal. They could only get two teams to participate in the hunt and gave them both a free meal as a prize.
Another team found disaster when one of the team members stood in a parking lot and waved his flyer at passing cars. No one stopped.
One team tied coupons to balloons but failed miserably when the balloons didn't have enough air in them to fly. Instead, they were left in a big pile in an empty park.
These teams made simple mistakes that cost them from getting customers and, ultimately, their own restaurant. But getting customers in off the street isn't easy.
Do on the street advertising methods work?
One of the best advertising studies was this past season of BBC's Last Restaurant Standing. Nine couples faced challenges to bring in more customers each week through various marketing methods in addition to running their restaurants. It was up to each team to drum up new business and increase their customer base each week.
Many of them took to the streets with flyers. One team used a scavenger hunt to attract customers with the promise of the winner receiving a free meal. They could only get two teams to participate in the hunt and gave them both a free meal as a prize.
Another team found disaster when one of the team members stood in a parking lot and waved his flyer at passing cars. No one stopped.
One team tied coupons to balloons but failed miserably when the balloons didn't have enough air in them to fly. Instead, they were left in a big pile in an empty park.
These teams made simple mistakes that cost them from getting customers and, ultimately, their own restaurant. But getting customers in off the street isn't easy.
Do on the street advertising methods work?